😂 Celia has planted so many witty barbs & slights in this novel! Throughly enjoying it! #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

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#FurrowedMiddlebrowClub

There are some beautiful lyrical sections, but overall the novel seemed a bit disjointed, though that might be intentional. I never felt like I knew any of the characters, including the MC.

In the end I‘m unlikely to remember anything expect the overwhelming majority of intercontinental communication is conveyed by underwater cables! Not satellites like we would expect.

Hands down my favorite McCann work is Apeirogon.

🤔 Interesting piece I‘m still pondering. Is Vesta a spirit or does she have an alter ego, or does she have a personality disorder or is she slipping into senility? Whatever the case, Moshfegh is able plant the reader inside Vesta‘s wild imagination and sadly, also reveal the oppression & lack of fulfillment that may account for it.

Audio knitting for Happy Hour.

I‘m very tempted to DNF this one. I recognize the narrator is unreliable, but maybe I should stick it out to see just how batty she really is????

Husband was telling me initially this was serialized online, which might have been more fun.

Basically the MC is MacGyver every chapter, which is fine but it isn‘t balanced out with enough of a human psychological/emotional storyline. I had to gloss over all of the technical math & science stuff every time he had to fix something, of which there is A LOT. I would have bailed had it not been for a bookclub.

But, the humor is first rate! 👍🏾

Oh my gosh, I haven‘t thought about Sanford & Son in decades! The theme music is fantastic - what a groove. Back when music was actually written and played by human beings. 👵🏻😉

https://youtu.be/j9z4zPKHbrA?si=3lysXLU4OZ0ruRXA

Had these bookmarks made for our witty IRL bookclub. 😎

“Pecola, on the other hand, restricted by youth and sex, experimented with methods of endurance.”

This is a gut punch of a novel. And like the poet she was, Morrison is a consummate narrator.

Storms are ruining my outdoor happy hour, but perhaps is a fitting atmosphere for this novel.

Baldwin was able write a complex portrait of David, an American young gay man in 1950‘s Paris, in such a way that the heartache, ambiguity, duplicity, longing, and guilt drip off the pages. I am left feeling ambivalent about him, which is perfect.

Poignant as hell.

😖 I feel bad because I thought the premise was good, but the execution was too saccharine and in some ways just not very realistic. Throw in preachy, but at the same time desperately trying not to offend both prochoice & prolife readers.

The MC seemed to be rather childish and the narrator pulled it off because I was annoyed with her. 😆

Finally sitting down and the first 🍺 of the season is well deserved. I‘ve spent two entire afternoons in 95+ heat cleaning out our camper. For the first time in two decades of camping we had mice in it over the winter, which meant everything had to come out, be washed, and the interior scrubbed. 😝

Back to my Happy Hour Reading.

I‘m enjoying Watney‘s humor, but definitely steers toward Jr. High. 😆

I‘m sure given the length of this tome there will be some connection to finches. 😆 We have a pair of yellow finches that sit atop the geraniums and pluck off the petals and peck at the window. Cheeky.

Walt is staying cool.

“But people can‘t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives us those and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.” 💙

Happy Hour.

Tagged book is a gorgeous garden cookbook!

But this photo made me snort and laugh like a junior high kid. Daughter didn‘t think it was funny because A. she doesn‘t like carrots “gross” and B. she was eating.

Tara is stuck some weird time glitch and is blindly trying to find a way out!

I ordered Volume II halfway thru! I‘m going to be frustrated when I have to wait for III & IV to be released in November. I‘m sure I‘ll preorder.

Supporting both indie bookshop & indie presses.💙

It need not be a weeknight to enjoy these recipes. 😄 This was a winner with some chili crisp stir fried veggies!

This collection definitely has accessible ideas for less fussy meals, though I will say the recipes always take longer to make than the times given.

“Stories on an island travel sideways”….. something to that effect. 💚

Perfect description of this intimately detailed portrait of a doctor, his daughter, and their village during the Christmas season of 1962. Something unexpectedly upends the doctor‘s guarded privacy and equilibrium.

Simply gorgeous prose with quotable gems every page. I enjoyed This is Happiness, but I loved this one.

Embarking on the next chunkster. 😄

I‘m so glad the de Waals family allowed her novels to be published posthumously. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and circumstance of this one, which were unique enough to keep me engaged. It also went off in surprising directions! Makes me wonder whether this could have been published in the 1950‘s. 🤔 #PersephoneClub

Lately I‘ve not had much luck book shopping, but today I scored. 😃 The two novels were on my TBR and I wasn‘t looking for them - pure happenstance.

Milk Street is always up my alley.

This monument to Aboriginal sovereignty is going to take hot minute to digest. Wright did an excellent job making time amorphous & porous, such that the characters live simultaneously in the past, present, and even the future. (Homage to oldest extant culture.)There are a multitude of ways to interpret all of the themes, symbolism, etc. such that my head is spinning. 😵‍💫

Perfect outdoor reading time. ☺️ Definitely enjoying the #PersephoneClub pick. Elizabeth has made all of the characters interesting. I want to know more!

Sometimes you just need a donkey to remind you to kick up your heels & embrace life. 🫏

Short & sweet without being saccharine.

Best line, “His head was full of a musical buzz, and although his Muse had chosen to inhabit an odd and inappropriate person, Andy Lightfoot was happy because he was writing poems and that was what he was meant to do.”

Definitely going on the to-buy list! Gorgeous book with accessible recipes for bean lovers. It‘s also another reason to order beans from Rancho Gordo.

I loved how Campbell describes at first he was concerned teaching comparative mythology would taint or destroy his students‘ religious beliefs. However, it had the opposite effect, rather it deepened the meaning of the principles & values in their lives.

I enjoyed the comparisons between mythologies to reveal universal commonalities. Certainly they seem to reflect the human psyche, regardless whether one believes in cosmic force(s).

I‘m in trouble if Walt Whitman is indeed the best American writer. 😅

IRL bookclub picked Leaves of Grass for the next selection and I‘m not relating to his writing AT ALL. I‘m just not that smart. 😏

For contrast we‘re also reading some Emily Dickinson. 😁

😊 Back to outdoor reading, at last!

And finally getting to this novella.

Hmmmmm 🤔 It started out well and then got a bit ridiculous on the believability scale the longer it went on. Also, every single character was messed up because of mother issues = overdone. Then it just ended and the aftermath was what would have been interesting.

Definitely page turning! In this case, audio pages. 😉

Amazed at how safe the AT historically has been re: crime given how isolated it is in some segments.

Well, for a Canadian Matty can write a delicious gumbo recipe!

Can I get this read for my other bookclub by Friday? Probably not the way I‘d like to read it, but you do what you can when it‘s crunch time!

Ghostbusting! 👻 Wish I would have discovered this in October. Lots of interesting historical background on the supernatural craze of late 19th to mid 20th centuries.

I recall my grandmother saying at one time her family members went to some type of fortune teller/seer, which would have been within that period. Can‘t remember why, but in my mind it‘s connected to something about money hidden within the walls of the house.

Ready for book club tomorrow! It‘s a funny group, so I‘m looking forward to their takes on Dante & the filth, stench, and all around beastliness of his hellish creation.

I‘m glad I read it. Did I enjoy it? Parts were creative and engaging, others read like a contemporary political revenge rag for which I have no context. Very thankful to Ciardi & his notes.

It‘s a bit like a collection of short stories, some Cantos are a hit and others a miss.

This was meant to be for me on Mother‘s Day! First, I celebrate loving two great kids and second I celebrate the extraordinary gift of motherhood their biological mothers made to me. 💕

When I walked into the cookbook section this book was on the display at eye level. 😍.

Fantastic recipes, some are for dishes and flavor combos not included in my other Ethiopian cookbooks. Anxious to try them. I wish could get to her cafe in Harlem!

You very lucky Australians! I wish I had access to Katy and her shop in real life. She could sell the leg off a table - she‘s that good of a reviewer. I always want to purchase and read every book she presents.

Link to YouTube channel and most recent reviews: https://youtu.be/AEJrcbVBrrY?si=RCCrLzaeIwZrV4IY

I‘m late to the Matheson party, but better late than never! This is not just a book to look at and be inspired to cook from, it‘s a book to read. His authenticity is a hoot and refreshing. The essays preceding each section and the descriptions of each recipe are great fun. Clearly he is a down to earth chefy chef; his world contains multitudes of food styles & tastes.

“God f*cking” bless grilled cheese sandwiches.”

I didn‘t know about the Jeju massacre until listening to this novel. Beautiful, haunting writing that I think would have been even better in print. That way I could have reread passages and spent more time thinking about them. I will have to get a copy for my shelves.

P.S. I think I was “meh” on The Vegetarian. 😏

How did I miss this film about Thomas Wolfe & his editor Max Perkins? I ran across the film today and binge watched the whole thing while on the elliptical. Gorgeous cinematography and acting - highly recommend.

Whole thing is here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9AowPEE-7hY?si=Llhdawj2cxKCQUyM

My new chunkster adventure! With the dreamscape & magical realism elements, the wine is a necessary reading aid. 😅

A book nerd thing only you all will appreciate.

I was staring at this box set in the “library/TV” room where my daughter was sitting and I was telling her I wished she‘d read them. (No chance.) I pulled the tagged book out, opened it up and BAM ☄️ I was rushed headlong back in time by the very unique scent of the paper in these editions. I could live inside them.

Happy sweet memories. 🥰

With some distance now I have an even greater appreciation for this behemoth. With so many themes I can‘t even begin to relay them all here. But one I especially appreciated was that of the invisible & everlasting connections between people, places, events, ideas, beliefs, etc. They are the “sparks” Olga gathers in this book.

The Prologue & final scene doubles down on this theme in a most delightful way I can‘t spoil!

This book is very well researched on England‘s new divorce law, court, and the people orbiting in & around it. Other reviewers have noted Mrs. Robinson serves as a model trope for victims of patriarchy and sexism. So absurd now that everything sexual was the result of a defect or disease of some sort. “Womb complaint”

IMO the degree of detail about extraneous individuals was a distraction from the Robinsons‘ story.

Just because I can‘t stand the dull a moment longer! I don‘t care if I have to bring it in at night like a baby. First pot of the season. 😊